Home Town Encounter (Writing Prompt Challenge)
by gkmoberg1
Summary: Proposition: Oskar and Eli visit your home town, or where you are living now. They interact with you. Stretch your creative muscles. It doesn't have to be great literature, just a fun imagining.
1. The Subway Station (one shot)

**Home Town Encounter (Writing Prompt Challenge)**

_**by gkmoberg1**_

**These two stories are my responses to a fellow fanfic writer's prompt. "**_**Proposition: Oskar and Eli visit your home town, or where you are living now. They interact with you. Stretch your creative muscles. It doesn't have to be great literature, just a fun imagining."**_

Gladly accepted!

My response is two stories. The first story is a one-shot. The second takes up four parts. What would you write?

The location I chose is not my 'home town' yet is one very familiar and dear to me. So, it suits.

* * *

Story #1: Harvard University 'T' Stop

Sunday, 20 November 2011  
Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA.

They called me near noon and I hurried over. Borrowed a car and parked on Brattle Street, almost up next to Appian Way. Then walked back to the T stop, Red Line, and took the escalator down into the station.

There's a good crowd today, as usual, both about the square and down into the metro. Kids, university kids, adults. Everyone is on the move to somewhere. Good clean late afternoon November sunshine with its late fall chill. It's alive, the entire place. I love coming here.

I could just hear them up at the street level entrance to the subway. Tommy on his electric bass and practice amp was my first clue on their whereabouts. Found him first too through the bobbing heads of the crowd once I was below street level. His hair is beginning to thin but he's still the same. Clean shaven, tall, well built, and that lost, far off look. He rambles both in his gate and his speech. Too much something happened in his youth. But - man! - can he play. He walks the electric bass like a black cat. Up, down, melodic and flowing. For him alone I'd come just to listen.

There was no denying the tune. He was charming the bass line of Rush's _Tom Sawyer_ for the crowd. The syncopated beat he was keeping up with was Elias'. Took my getting through the crowd to see the little guy but I knew he'd be there. Headphones clamped over his head and a wheel of tom-toms hung about his tiny hips. Must be something in him, some advanced means of sensing the vibrations about him, he has learned the most amazing rhythms. Always wears those headphones down here too. He's told me they make him deaf, which with the screeching of the Red Line train and the bustle of the crowd would be a nice retreat. But he can pick up the beat by watching Tommy and Oskar. And having played these tunes a thousand times over he what to do.

Kid never changes either. He looks the same as he did when we met last year. And the year before that.

Oskar is a trip. Sporting a yellow and blue Hawaiian shirt, unplugged electric guitar dangling from his shoulders, he sings the final parts of Tom Sawyer as they ooze out of their extended vamp segue. He too wears headphones but not so packed as Elias'. The unplugged electric cords of the guitar and the headphones danced around him as he sings

"Exit the warrior,  
Today's Tom Sawyer,  
He gets high on you!  
And the energy you trade,  
He gets right on to the friction of the day."

All three move through the syncopated beats that conclude the song. The crowd is well into it and most give them a good applause when the number was over. I do too.

~o~ ~oOo~ ~o~

We came up after dark from the subterranean layers of the subway station. There is an open street level terrace along the south side of Massachusetts Avenue where it curves along the edge of the public square. The area has seats, tables with chess boards and is surrounded be a sweet collection of little shoppes and cafes. I got Tommy and myself coffees and strong chocolate treats from Finale over on Dunster Street. The kids got bottled waters. Together we watched the traffic move along. Oskar and Eli played checkers using pebbles that they found about the area.

I talked mostly with Tommy. He's not really in tune with where he is nor what day it might be. But he has opinions just the same. Rants. Raves. Some are pretty darn funny.

I imagine we could almost pass as brothers. We were born within a couple years of each other. And now with our advancing ages, well, we don't look all that different from each other. I do wish, though, I had more time than this evening to be with him; he needs some help.

Oskar and Eli talk a mile a minute. They too are nearly the same size and whatever they're keeping up on, it's all to their own keeping. Besides my Swedish is lousy.

~o~ ~oOo~ ~o~

After a bit we got set up at one of the entrances to Harvard Yard, still in the immediate view of Harvard Square. This required first a walk over to my car for the stashed mic stands and the other practice amp, but soon we were again along Mass Ave and ready to go.

Listen to me, saying "we". That's a good laugh! I mean "they". Me, I'm just a temp roadie. One of many. But for this evening, it's me and the three of them. So for a brief moment of delusion, I'll say "we" and smile.

~o~ ~oOo~ ~o~

Oskar starts off with _Strawberry Fields_. The other two join in and it becomes the same hypnotic thing they were doing early down in the subway. A small crowd gathers. It's been a year; surely I am the only one who remembers this from last November. He's halfway through before I remember my part with the tambourine - yes, my one small bit in all of this. After that I hand it over to Elias.

They meld through song after song. Oskar plays his six string electric through the second practice amp; Eli does the percussion; and Tommy dances slowly with his electric bass. Most of the material I know but with their experience - decades long - of playing together and the way they work together, well it's hard to know when some of their bits are creations they've grown into. Tommy is completely into his zone as he runs the electric bass. Whatever is left inside his head, it centers on moments like this.

~o~ ~oOo~ ~o~

It's well toward the point when the street performers are to disperse. Mingling groups of watchers have come and gone all evening. The traffic before us on Mass Ave is just as busy but it's getting late. Those listening at this point are either adults or Harvard students. Children and parents have wandered off towards home and bed.

Oskar, Eli and Tommy slide into a rendition of Coldplay's _Yellow_ that is new to me. One minute they were doing Train's _Hey, Soul Sister_ and the next I knew Oskar had launched forward with the opening lines

"Look at the stars,  
Look how they shine for you,  
and every thing you do,  
They were all yellow."

And the other two come in beautifully behind him with Eli's tom-tom's and Tommy's soulful bass. It is touching and the crowd feels it too. As they continued I realize this is the last number for the evening. Plus it's a fitting song.

I doubt anyone watching but me realizes Oskar is singing it all to Eli.

~o~ ~oOo~ ~o~

We pack the car and put it into gear. I fill up at the Hess station on the way out and we head north. Six hours later we are approaching Montreal. I am beat from the long day and long drive. But I drop them off near the city's massive underground and they are gone within minutes. They are off to their next street gig and whomever it is that they've met here, their next roadie, who will carry them for the day and take them on to whatever's next.

Me, I'll nap in the car most of the day and then drive back south. That, and wait for next November.

###


	2. The Observatory, Part 1 of 4

Story #2: Havard University / Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Part 1 of 4

Tuesday, 13 December 2011  
Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA.

Traffic slows to a crawl. Dusk arrives in Harvard Square. The traffic light turns red as we come up even with the subway stop, and a throng of pedestrians surge into the street.

I fidget behind the steering wheel. I feel too warm because I am wearing a winter jacket yet the car's heater is also on and set to High. But because of the seat belt restraint I cannot get the jacket off. So I fidget and swelter.

Around me, my family looks out the car windows and takes in the holiday rush. Shops are decorated. Even the street lamps and poles have some holiday decorations.

On the right is the Red Line's entrance and the historic little red brick "Out of Town News" magazine store. On the left is the entrance to the Harvard Coop - a large bookstore, clothing and everything-else store that services the Harvard University students plus all us visitors. Up ahead is the main campus of Harvard University and the famed Harvard Yard, separated from us by the graceful arc of Massachusetts Avenue and then the University's neatly appointed black iron fencing. In the background the red brick buildings of Harvard University are everywhere.

We wait until the light turns green and then for the last of the shoppers to clear the roadway before we can continue. Traffic here is always hectic. Trying to come through here during the holiday season is worse. I should have come up from a different direction and bypassed the square.

At no more than 10 miles per hour we travel forward up along the edge of the university. The traffic remains gridlocked. The iPod keeps the kids busy but the pressure is increasing for us to get to where we want to be.

Minutes go by. We edge through the traffic and yet more traffic lights, make the turn back south, reversing our direction on Massachusetts Avenue and finally are able to turn to the right onto Garden Street. Here the traffic is lighter and we make are way along at a better pace. After a couple short blocks we are even with Radcliffe College and its famed Radcliffe Quadrangle. Just beyond this we make another turn and take the short driveway up towards the observatory.


	3. The Observatory, Part 2 of 2

Tuesday, 13 December 2011, 5:00pm  
Harvard Astrophysics Buildings  
of Radcliffe Quadrangle  
Harvard University  
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Darkness beat us to the parking lot. As we exited our car, the overhead lights were coming on and so were at that stage where they are lit but not yet with the strength to illuminate. Hurriedly, for the time was short and we were worried about not getting seats, we made our way towards the observatory buildings.

The event we were arriving for is held the third Tuesday of each month and is hosted by the Harvard Observation Society. The event fills up on a simple "until the meeting room is full" allowance for whoever may attend. Reservations are not possible and even membership does not guarantee a spot. Thus to arrive early is the key to ensure admittance. The talent is to know how much 'early enough' will suffice. In our case, the slow traffic through Harvard Square had cost us a dear amount of time.

Knowing that we were likely to met by an already filled room and thus be turned away, we crossed the dark little parking lot. An unspoken stress hung in the air between us. The parking space we had found was one of the last to be available for the lot. This was not a good sign.

The children reached the building first, roving ahead of us in their eagerness. We then had to walk alongside a row of windows and around to another side before we found the entrance. At each window we passed my wife noted aloud how full the room was and was giving me looks of increasing concern and irritation. Things were rising to the "we might as well go home now" pronouncement.

Yet when we reached the door and got inside, encumbered by our jackets, hats and gloves, we found some seating remained open. A cautious element of relief began to creep in. After signing ourselves in at the entrance desk we were ushered by a young woman across the lobby and into the meeting room. Yes, we had to resort to settling with seats at the back, but there we were: in attendance. Success! After a moment to arrange and seat ourselves and another to take account of our location we found we could at last relax.

The meeting room was one used by the university's astrophysics classes. The room and the building were old, likely pre Civil War era. The building's exterior was solid, composed of large irregular and gray stone. The walls were thick and the three-story edifice had a heavy feel to it. Even inside this classroom, which turned out to be oval in shape, the heaviness continued. The dais at the room's front was framed by a set of thick support columns. The seats for attendees were old-style collapsible wooden chairs and looked to be decades old themselves. The attendance for the room was set in arranged rows. The wooden floor descended, in broad steps, away from the doorway we entered through. The dais at the front was then raised up slightly. So even though we were in the last of eight rows, the view to the front was clear.

The evening's event, a series of presentations to be given by the French _Académie des sciences_, began on-time, no more than five minutes after our arrival. The head of the Harvard Observation Society, a Dr. William Hampton, began by welcoming us and by welcoming the group that was visiting from Paris. He continued by framing the evening's plan. There would be roughly an hour spent here in the classroom, hearing from the students of the French _Académie_, and then there would be star viewing – weather permitting - on the roof above us. The Society had arranged for us to be using five different stations on the roof. Four of the observatory's mounted, permanent telescopes would be available and the fifth station would be a free-standing telescope set up on tripod.

It was the combination of hearing these presentations from the French student group and the chance to see the stars through these telescopes that had caught our childrens' attention. Looking over at them I could see the three were indeed alert and set to listen. My wife noted this as well. She leaned over to me and whispering that I'm darn lucky there was still parking and these available seats. I could only agree.

Dr. Hampton then presented to us Madame Dubourdieu, head of the group from the _Académie_.

"_Merci_, Dr. Hampton," she began in a wonderful voice that while affected by a French accent, was clear in diction and came to demonstrate a fluency in English. "I will not be long. What I want to give you," she said as she turned her attention to the audience, "this evening is the voices of the students who have traveled to meet you. It is important for you that these students are from across France and Europe. Each has demonstrated a strong desire to learn about _l'astronomie_ and each has found their way into this group by going out and doing science. Not a single one waited for science to come to them. Each in her or his way took on looking at the night sky and asking "Why?". "Why?" Yes, "Why?" _Le mot est magnifique!_ We always need to be asking this word.

"These young students - their names were referred to the _Académie_ and the _département de recherche_ where I am the lead. This was done by their school instructors and we have brought them together both to share with you their vision and to educate them as a group.

"As you will see, we have this evening some very young scholars and some older who attend university. Pay no attention to this. What I want of you is to listen. Listen to what they have to share. These are minds that are open to exploration. These are minds that will travel."

And so over the course of the next hour, _plus ou moins_, the young students of the _Académie des sciences_ gave their talks. They were most often grouped in pairs, usually of the same age, and they proceeded from shy or awkward introductions through to rather accomplished speaking after they got going. Many of the presentations were very original. Some, such as from the younger students – and there were several who were pre-teen – were perhaps a bit too fanciful, but all of the presentations were well formed and well researched. It was hard to find fault with most nearly any of their discussions. For example: a set of older teens, both girls and both apparently from Spain, discussed uses of bioengineering as an integral part of the construction of space craft; it was startling but well presented. Another example: a younger pair gave plans for building a moon station, one that used the moon's (relative) weak gravity to permit the station to hop about and thus move its location. This drew some amused laughter from across the room but the children giving the discussion were merely encouraged by this and continued with enthusiasm.

Throughout, our kids were enthralled. We could tell it was going to be a noisy ride home as the three of them reiterated and worked out much of what they were taking in.

What had been a stressful evening - because of the difficult drive to the observatory and the worry of not being able to arrive in time - had dissolved into one of both education and enjoyment. I shared a smile with my spouse as the last of the French student groups finished. About an hour, perhaps, of looking at the stars from up on the roof and then we would be off back home. It was turning out to be a wonderful evening.


End file.
